"You don"t call me a thief, do you?" demanded Jim, offended.
"It looks as if we was both thieves," said Sam, candidly.
"You needn"t talk so loud," said Jim, hurriedly. "There"s no use in tellin" everybody that I see. I don"t want the money, only, if the old man finds it, don"t blame me."
"You needn"t be mad, Jim," said Sam. "I"ll need the money myself. I guess I"ll have to hide it."
"Do you wear stockin"s?" asked Jim.
"Yes; don"t you?"
"Not in warm weather. They aint no good. They only get dirty. But if you wear "em, that"s the place to hide the money."
"I guess you"re right," said Sam. "I wouldn"t have thought of it.
Where can I do it?"
"Wait till we"re on the New York side. You can sit down on one of the piers and do it. n.o.body"ll see you."
Sam thought this good advice, and decided to follow it.
"There is some use in stockin"s," said Jim, reflectively. "If I was in your place, I wouldn"t know where to stow away the money. Where are you goin" now?"
"I"ll have to go back," said Sam. "I"ve been a long time already."
"I"m goin to get some dinner," said Jim.
"I haven"t got time," said Sam. "Besides, I don"t feel so hungry as usual. I guess it"s the drink I took."
"It don"t take away my appet.i.te," said his companion, with an air of superiority.
Sam took the cars home. Knowing what he did, it was with an uncomfortable feeling that he ascended the stairs and entered the presence of Dr. Graham.
The doctor looked angry.
"What made you so long?" he demanded abruptly. "Did you find the house?"
"No," answered Sam, wishing that his embarra.s.sing explanations were fully over. "No, I didn"t."
"You didn"t find the house!" exclaimed the doctor, in angry surprise.
"Why didn"t you?"
"I thought it wasn"t any use," stammered Sam.
"Wasn"t any use!" repeated the chiropodist. "Explain yourself, sir, at once."
"As long as I hadn"t got the letter," proceeded Sam.
Now the secret was out.
"What did you do with the letter?" demanded Dr. Graham, suspiciously.
"I lost it."
"Lost it! How could you lose it? Did you know there was money in it?"
said his employer, looking angry and disturbed.
"Yes, sir; you said so."
"Then why were you not careful of it, you young rascal?"
"I was, sir; that is, I tried to be. But it was stolen."
"Who would steal the letter unless he knew that it contained money?"
"That"s it, sir. I ought not to have told anybody."
"Sit down, and tell me all about it, or it will be the worse for you,"
said the doctor.
"Now for it!" thought Sam.
"You see, sir," he commenced, "I was in the horse-cars in Brooklyn, when I saw a boy I knew. We got to talking, and, before I knew it, I told him that I was carryin" a letter with money in it. I took it out of my coat-pocket, and showed it to him."
"You had no business to do it," said Dr. Graham. "No one but a fool would show a money-letter. So the boy stole it, did he?"
"Oh, no," said Sam, hastily. "It wasn"t he."
"Who was it, then? Don"t be all day telling your story," said the doctor, irritably.
"There was a young man sitting on the other side of me," said Sam. "He was well-dressed, and I didn"t think he"d do such a thing; but he must have stole the letter."
"What makes you think so?"
"He got out only two or three minutes afterwards, and it wasn"t long after that that I missed the letter."
"What did you do?"
"I stopped the car, and went back. Jim went back along with me. We looked all round, tryin" to find the man, but we couldn"t."
"Of course you couldn"t," growled the doctor. "Did you think he would stay till you came up?"
"No, sir. That is, I didn"t know what to think. I felt so bad about losing the money," said Sam, artfully.
Now this story was on the whole very well got up. It did not do credit to Sam"s principles, but it did do credit to his powers of invention.
It might be true. There are such men as pickpockets to be found riding in our city horse-cars, as possibly some of my readers may have occasion to know. As yet Dr. Graham did not doubt the story of his young a.s.sistant. Sam came very near getting off scot-free.
"But for your carelessness this money would not have been lost," said his employer. "You ought to make up the loss to me."